Fly into the future

Be the first person to discover the future: 13 ideas that might change the world, and will definitely change the way you think. Part 1- Aerial delights!

Flight attendant

FILM ME, DRONE!

The thing that annoyed professional snowboarder and filmmaker Xavier de Le Rue about drone cameras was that there always had to be someone keeping an eye on the image via remote control. Surely it could be automatic too, the Frenchman thought – a drone that worked by itself and always had the right field of view. After a winter of tests and an insanely successful Kickstarter campaign, it’s now a reality.

The fully automatic camera drone that de Le Rue and his friends at Squadrone System have developed is called the Hexo+. It follows your smartphone’s GPS signal. You choose the camera style (close-up, panorama, circling flight) using the app, and the drone will haveyou perfectly in shot throughout, whether you’re bombing down a glacier on a snowboard, walking along a beach or lying on the grass. This drone won’t let you down.

Hexo+

Lift off!

IN 2015, AT LONG LAST.

What’s really happening with the space-time continuum, Doc? The only reason we wish we had the hoverboard is because we already know about it from the mystical year 2015 in Back to the Future Part II. So have Jill and Greg Henderson from the startup Arx Pax created an alternative reality with their prototype, which appeared this year, or is our universe about to collapse in on itself? Whatever happens, real hoverboards are definitely worth the risk.

MUSK PUTS HIS FAITH IN THE CROWD

PNEUMATIC TUBE.

We will fly through a system of tubes circling the globe in transport capsules the size of cars, propelled by compressed air at close to the speed of sound, and it will all be powered by solar energy. If we’re to believe Elon Musk – and why shouldn’t we? – this is what the transport of the future looks like. The good thing is that Musk is putting his faith in the crowd. The billionaire inventor has made his baby an open source project. Hyperloop promptly became the biggest project on jumpstartfund.com.

The platform takes crowdfunding to a whole new level by creating a community of entrepreneurs, experts and investors.

Hyperloop

Pioneer: Elon MuskTop Speed: 1000 kphAir pressure in the tubes: 1/1,000 barCurrent status: An initial 8km test track is due to be built in California in 2016

TECHNOLOGY FOR YOUR RUNNING TECHNIQUE

HOT INSOLES.

Munich-based startup Moticon has been working for several years on the best sensor insoles the sporting world has to offer. And company founder Maximilian Müller seems to have made a breakthrough with his OpenGo science. The ultrathin insole, which monitors pressure distribution, acceleration and rate of flow, is aimed at professional sportsmen and women and physiotherapists, but one thing it won’t measure is how much you sweat.